First Time Out
by JoeBabyFyrestorm
Summary: Two Joes are sent on a mission together. For one, it's her first mission ever with the Joes. Things are not always what they seem. I crossed over into a bit of fantasy with this story.
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: I own none of this story except for the storyline, which tie into another storyline that I'm working on. The characters, except for Stunner and Spitfyre belong to Hasbro and whoever else owns them.  
  
"Snake Eyes, you have got to be kidding! I can't spar with this little girl; I'll hurt her. She's too perfect to mess up anything about her." Grand Slam complains about his sparring partner for the morning. Snake Eyes stands there motionless, appearing apparently totally uncaring as to what might happen to either participant.  
  
Off to his left, a small, slim, petite girl, not quite five foot tall (actually, she's only four foot ten) stands there, watching Grand Slam with silver-green eyes. She twirls her long dark auburn braid around her fist and then twists it back on her head, pinning it in place with a couple of bobby pins that she had taken out minutes earlier.  
  
She had only been a member of the team for a couple of weeks, but she already had managed to get onto Beach Head's bad side. Her natural agility and suppleness lended her an air of the supernatural. Add to that her dark hair, and the color of her eyes such a light shade of violet they were almost nonexistent, and there was a lot of whispering about what kind of abilities she might have had as a witch or something worse.  
  
She wasn't very close to anyone, since she was new there, but there was also an air of mystery surrounding her. No one knew her real name, and not much of anything else was known.  
  
Grand Slam sees a blur from the corner of his eye, and the next thing he knows, he's flat on his back looking at the ceiling, with the girl planted squarely on his midsection.  
  
"This would have been interesting under other circumstances," he thought.  
  
"Rule number one in dealing with me: never underestimate your opponent. Always keep them in sight. Rule number two: the biggest blasts come from the smallest packages. Rule number three: I don't put out, so don't even ask." She levers herself up from straddling his body and holds her hand out to help him up, and he takes it, pulling her and throwing his weight behind it, trying to pull her off balance. She rolls with the force and flips her body, landing on her feet like a cat.  
  
"Wow, you're pretty good!" he exclaims as he pulls himself up, "Where'd you learn to tackle like that?"  
  
"Being small does have its advantages at times. I used to play mud football all the time with the boys in the neighborhood, growing up. They used to think I was a pushover, too."  
  
Up close, he notices something that he had missed when he'd appraised her before their admittedly one-sided fight. Around her eyes were tiny scars, and her nose wasn't as straight as he had thought. She'd had it broken once or twice in her life. He also notices that she is trembling badly.  
  
"Tolliver! Telephone!" somebody yelled.  
  
"Keep your pants on, I'm coming! Be there in a second," she yells back. She looks at Grand Slam and Snake Eyes and shrugs. She then turns and hikes across the dojo to the office, where she takes the phone call, privately.  
  
When she comes out, Grand Slam can see that she is paler and trembling worse than she was when she'd squared off with him earlier, and realizes that something is wrong. He goes over to her to offer his assistance.  
  
"What is it, little one? What's wrong?" He reaches out to her and places his hand on her shoulder.  
  
She turns her head and looks at him without really seeing him, as if she's looking through him. "She's escaped. Ain't nobody around here safe now."  
  
"Who? Who's escaped?" he asks her.  
  
"My worst enemy. The one person y'all have no defense for." He watches as her eyes widen and she tackles him again.  
  
"Get down!" she yells. There is an explosion in the dojo near them and she takes the brunt of the concussion blast, and is knocked backwards onto a pile of weightlifting equipment, skin shredding and bone cracking as she hits.  
  
The attacker turns and rushes for the door, disappearing before anybody in the room can get their thoughts together.  
  
Grand Slam slowly rolls to his knees, shaking his head to clear away the fuzziness and crawls over to Spitfyre, whose small body lies unconscious amid the rubble, bleeding heavily. He strips his shirt off and presses it to the worst of the wounds, keeping pressure on it, and using what was left of her shirt and whatever else he can get his hands on to try to staunch the rest of the bleeding.  
  
Someone called the infirmary and it wasn't until the stretcher got there that any of it really sank in to everyone that one of the smallest, most innocent of their own had been injured by an outsider.  
  
When the stretcher arrives, Grand Slam relinquishes care of Spitfyre's body to the medics, but he stays near. For some strange reason, he feels like this attack was his fault, and that he should protect her because she was so small and innocent.  
  
As he was tending her wounds, he discovered that the nearly unnoticeable scars on her face were not the only ones that she had. She had been through hell and back, according to the massive scars on her back and torso.  
  
"No wonder she never wore short sleeves or shorts. She was covering up her past. She probably thinks she's ugly now, and this is most probably the reason," he thinks. 


	2. Off to a running start

After she is stabilized at the infirmary, he stays on with her after everyone else leaves. He stays by her side and talks to her, knowing that she could hear him, if not comprehend what he was saying. He stays there night after night, just talking to her and keeping her company, letting her know that there was someone who cared.  
  
He really isn't sure why he's drawn to this small, shy slip of a female. He is so deep in thought that he doesn't notice the way her body starts twitching.  
  
She opens her eyes, seeing nothing but blurs at first, and then as her eyes focus and clear, she sees Grand Slam slumped over the edge of the bed, head resting on his crossed arms, asleep. She reaches out to brush a lock of chestnut hair off of his forehead where it had fallen. He jumps and instantly wakes up.  
  
"It's not your fault," she whispers.  
  
He reaches out and squeezes her hand. "How are you feeling this morning?"  
  
"Like I was that frog that just got caught in the proverbial blender..." she returns. He chuckles, reaches past her head and flicks the little red button, letting the nurses' station know that she had awoken.  
  
Lifeline skids into the room about five minutes later, sweaty and panting. When Spitfyre looks at him a bit funny, he explains, "I was just outside playing hockey with some of the guys."  
  
"How many of the rest of them did you bloody this time?" Grand Slam inquired, jokingly.  
  
"Only Sci-Fi, Alpine, Steeler and Lowlight." Lifeline answers, seriously, as he begins to check Spitfyre's vital signs. He touches a spot on her arm and ducks, seeing the punch that was coming. "I take it that that's a painful spot."  
  
She flinches. "No joke. How bad is it?"  
  
"Well, there's good news and bad news. Three of your ribs are cracked, but are healing well, your nose won't have to be reset even though it is broken, and your back and legs are healing nicely. That's the good news. The bad news is that we didn't catch your attacker. It looks like she got clean away. I think we'll keep you until tomorrow at the earliest and Saturday at the latest, to make sure that everything is going all right. When we stitched up those cuts on your back, we also implanted a couple of steel rods to help heal your spine and when we got finished, we had to remove a good amount of scar tissue. You had one heck of a painful childhood, didn't you?"  
  
"That's the understatement of the year," she replied to his question. "You have no idea what kind of demons are hidden within me."  
  
"Whoa, how do you deal?" Grand Slam asked in surprise.  
  
"It's the reason I'm the best of the best when it comes to doing my job- I throw myself into my work and forget about anything else in the world, especially my family, and especially my mother, who just escaped the mental ward of the prison a few days ago."  
  
"You mean the one that... (gulp)...attacked us in the dojo the other day?"  
  
She wearily nods. "Unfortunately, yes."  
  
"Grand Slam, I think it's time to leave her and let her rest for a little while and you look like you could use some rest yourself." Lifeline notices that Spitfyre is tired and that Grand Slam is, too. Lifeline reaches over and grabs the IV line, injecting a painkiller into it. Spitfyre catches a glimpse of the bottle and knows exactly what it is and how it will affect her.  
  
"No, Lifeline, I'll stay here to play guard." Grand Slam argues.  
  
"No, Grand Slam, you're too tired to be any good if anything happens. I have more than one way of defending my physical body. There are multiple methods used to defur a feline."  
  
Both Grand Slam and Lifeline look at her funny.  
  
She shakes her head, laughing, and tells them, "In other words, boys, there is more than one way to skin a cat."  
  
"Oh, ooookay. Here, I'll give you my phone number. If anything looks just the least bit funny, call me. I'll be here as quick as I can." Grand Slam scribbles his phone number on a piece of paper and hands it to her.  
  
She takes it and puts it in the book on the table as a bookmark. She then closes her eyes and almost immediately falls deeply asleep, not noticing Grand Slam bending over to place a chaste kiss on her forehead. He and Lifeline leave the room quietly. 


	3. A little secret revealing

A few hours later she awakens to the sound of alarm sirens going off, signaling an attack on the base. She is instantly on her guard as she senses another person in the room. She attempts to find a shield to cover herself, but her concentration is rudely broken.  
  
Suddenly, the window shatters inward and a caped figure swings in. "I told you that you would never get away from me. You'll never see another sunrise, little piece of gutter trash."  
  
The figure grabs Spitfyre's arm and attempts to inject something into it, but is grabbed at the wrist by the third shadow in the room. "I think not," says the other person, revealing himself as Grand Slam. "I had the feeling that something was going to go down tonight, so I came back and stayed close in case you needed me, Little Bit."  
  
Hawk, Flint, and Lifeline burst into the room after hearing the window shatter. "What the heck is going on here?" Hawk demanded.  
  
"I caught this woman trying to inject something into Spitfyre's IV in order to kill her. I knew that Spitfyre was too weak to defend herself, so I came here first to make sure that she was okay," replied Grand Slam.  
  
"Do you know this woman?" asked Flint.  
  
"Unfortunately, yes," groans Spitfyre. "She's my mother. At least according to my birth certificate. I'm really not that sure."  
  
"I'm no mother of yours, you stupid little piece of gutter trash. I may have given birth to you, but that's as far as it goes," spat the woman. "You're not to be allowed to be happy or at peace. No matter where you go or what you do, we will always find you and bring you back down to where you're supposed to be."  
  
The inner, hidden pain showed in her eyes as she quickly turned her head towards the wall to hide it from the men. Grand Slam reaches over and takes her hand, softly stroking it.  
  
Hawk and Flint looked at Spitfyre, who concurs with his version of the story, as it was the truth. Flint takes charge of the intruder and hauls her out of the room, headed for the stockade. Lifeline strides over to Spitfyre's side and proceeds to make sure her condition was stable and that she was all right.  
  
When he tells Hawk that it would be fine to go ahead with his plans, Hawk puts the question to the couple. He then takes the syringe and hustles it down to the lab to find out what was in it.  
  
"I need a couple to go undercover for a little while to try and infiltrate a Cobra recruiting and training camp. All of the other couples here are too well known, and y'all are our last chance. This would give you a chance to recover, Spitfyre, and it would give both of you a much needed vacation, being that both of you are confirmed workaholics. I know that both of you have been under tremendous stress since Cadence first came onto the team," stated Hawk.  
  
Spitfyre thinks it over for a few minutes. She looks over at Grand Slam.  
  
"I'm game if you are," he tells her, shrugging.  
  
"What are we supposed to be doing?" she asks.  
  
"Y'all are a married couple moving to get away from bad memories, because you, Spitfyre, are confined to a wheelchair after a horrific car wreck with a drunk driver that killed your best friend, and Grand Slam is upset about more than one subject. Your biggest gripe, James, is how the government treated you guys when y'all came back from Vietnam, although you're kind of upset right now temporarily because your wife is confined to a wheelchair and you two can't...well, you know what I'm trying to say. Spitfyre, you'll be in physical therapy to regain the use of your legs after the accident, and Mainframe and Lifeline will help set that up for you. You're totally supportive of Grand Slam, no matter how wild he gets. And Grand Slam, that goes the same for you, no matter how depressed she gets about not making much progress. Y'all are moving to a home in Indianapolis, where, Spitfyre, you will be a typical homemaker/housewife and Grand Slam, you will be an insurance investigator, specializing in electrical and bombing cases. Y'all will be doing the moving yourselves; everything except your clothing is already packed on the trailer with Spitfyre's car, and Grand Slam, you'll be towing it with your truck."  
  
Grand Slam leans up against the wall, arms crossed. "So I'm supposed to be displeased because I ain't getting any, and really upset because my wife's been injured by a drunk driver. Okay. I can deal with that. What names are we using?"  
  
"James and Felicitie Manning."  
  
"I think I can live with that. When do we leave?"  
  
"As soon as Spitfyre gets out of here, probably tomorrow," stated Lifeline, having come in while Hawk was briefing the couple, "And Spitfyre, I do want you in the wheelchair for a little while until your legs heal some more, enough to handle your weight. I'll pack some medications for you, painkillers and such."  
  
"Okay, that'll work. Thanks," she replies.  
  
Hawk looks the couple over. "I think you'll do fine. The information packet will be delivered in a little while, but for right now, you two should talk it out and try to get used to being married to each other for the time being." He walks out and Lifeline is right behind him.  
  
Hawk leaves the room and goes to his office to get the paperwork he needs to marry the couple for the purpose of the mission.  
  
Grand Slam comes over to the bed and sits next to Spitfyre's head. He leans over. "There is something that I've been wanting to try the last few days," he says as he lowers his head towards hers. "Practice kiss," he whispers as he slants his lips over hers and feels the spark between them, stronger than it ever was between him and any other female he had ever had, though there weren't many. He abruptly realized that he had fallen in love with her in the few weeks that she had been a member of the team, never mind that she had been in the hospital, unconscious, most of the time that he had known her.  
  
The door creaks open a small number of inches, and Lifeline pokes his head in. Both Grand Slam and Spitfyre are way too busy to notice. He draws his head back out and grunts, satisfied.  
  
Stretcher, Psyche-Out, Short Fuze, Lady Jaye, Flint, Scarlett and Snake Eyes gathered in the room as per their orders from Hawk. When he returned, they witnessed the short yet legally binding marriage ceremony.  
  
Lifeline comes back a few minutes later and delivers the information package and the paperwork to release her, deciding that it would be best if they started early, being that they had a long way to go, and there wasn't anything pressing enough to warrant them holding her any longer. Both Grand Slam and Spitfyre go their separate ways, agreeing to meet at the trailer when they got finished packing. 


	4. the mission begins

Grand Slam finishes his packing first and decides, after loading it into his truck, to go check on Spitfyre. He goes up to her quarters and discovers her in the hallway, shoving her suitcases to the stairs. She is out of breath and very pale. He silently scoops her into his arms and carries her to the truck, setting her gently down in the passenger seat. Then he goes back and retrieves her suitcases, loading them into the truck and tying them down.  
  
He knew that she had had some help from the eunuch downstairs to get up to her quarters on the third floor, and that she would have an easier time going back down the stairs.  
  
She tries to shove her suitcases towards the stairs, determined to get them to the trailer without help when a shadow falls over her. She looks up to find Grand Slam standing there. She had thought that he looked good in a uniform, but in civilian clothes? "The man is totally hot!" she thought, "And strong, too!" as he silently picked her up and carried her to the truck, "Not to mention gentle. What more could you want in a guy?"  
  
He loads her luggage, goes around and gets in the drivers' seat, looking Spitfyre over, noting her paleness and the fact that she is shaking. "Are you okay?"  
  
"I just need something to drink. Preferably water," she replies. He leans down to the cooler between the seats and comes up with a bottle of water, holding it out to her.  
  
"Thanks." She takes it and pulls the top off, downing half the bottle in one long swallow.  
  
"I usually carry a cooler of iced drinks and water whenever I go anywhere, just in case."  
  
"I do the same thing for the same reasons. I never know what situations I'm going to run into."  
  
"Exactly."  
  
After this, the pair gets pretty silent, for a long while down the road, each are lost in their own thoughts; him watching the road and concentrating on driving, and her watching the scenery passing by and wondering why this man was so friendly towards her and didn't try to get rid of her like everyone else.  
  
They ride along in silence for a while, until Spitfyre breaks it.  
  
"Can I ask you a question?"  
  
"Sure. I may not have an answer, but you can at least ask."  
  
"What's your real name? I only know you by your code name as Grand Slam."  
  
"James Barney, what about yours?"  
  
"Felicitie Tolliver."  
  
"Do you have a middle name, Felicitie?"  
  
"My given name is actually Cadence Felicitie Tolliver. Most people call me Cadence, though."  
  
"Cool. I like it. Do you mind if I call you Cadie?"  
  
She blushes and turns back to the window. "No, I don't mind."  
  
He notices her blush in the dim light and wonders why she is still so shy and aloof with him.  
  
"Maybe it's me. Maybe it's not. Maybe she's had some pain to deal with in the past and she's not quite over it yet. Maybe I can help her get over it," he thinks.  
  
They stop somewhere after midnight, when he can no longer focus his eyes. They start the night in the same room and separate beds, but when he wakes in the wee hours of the morning, she is in his bed with him, teetering on the edge, still sound asleep.  
  
He protectively pulls her into his arms in the middle of the bed and goes back to sleep.  
  
She wakes up in the morning with her head pillowed on his shoulder. She stays still and thinks back over the past night, trying to figure out how that had come about. She feels a slight movement and turns her head to look up at him.  
  
He looks at her and smiles slightly. She smiles back and gets up to go to the bathroom, watching him stretch in the mirror.  
  
"Jeez, I never knew a guy could be that hot! And to wake up to him holding me in his arms like I actually was his wife in more than just name only? He's so hot, I'm burning up!" she thought. She took care of her personal business and then started the shower.  
  
He hears the shower start and immediately starts to imagine what it would be like to have her in his bed, in his shower, in his life forever. He moans in desire, imagining her screaming in ecstasy as he makes love to her, pounding into her as hard as he can.  
  
Suddenly, there is a loud, terrorized scream. It takes him a minute to realize that it wasn't his imagination, but coming from outside the hotel room. As soon as the thought registers, he watches Cadie come out of the bathroom, wearing only her underwear and a towel wrapped around her, headed for the door, armed and ready for battle.  
  
James stares, speechless, in amazement as the attacker decides to leave off the other woman and take on Cadie. The attacker rips the towel off of her, leaving her standing there in her bra and panties. James feels himself getting hard as he watches her very calmly take on the attacker.  
  
"You want a piece of this? Come on, I'm ready to open a can of whoop-ass." Cadie ducks as the assailant swings a knife for her throat, and comes back up, swinging a tremendous right uppercut, hitting him in the middle of the chest, doing serious damage, breaking his sternum and shattering a couple of his ribs.  
  
James rushes out to grab her arm and drag her back inside the room before anyone else could see her. A huge fight erupts.  
  
"What the hell were you thinking? You could have been killed, and then where would we have been? And what if someone had seen you? You could have given the mission away already!"  
  
"It's nothing I haven't faced before, and besides, I was disguised. Don't mess with me; I'm not in the mood for it this early in the morning." She turns away from him and goes over to the dresser to repack her overnight bag and get dressed.  
  
He marches over to her and slams his hand onto her shoulder; she turns and slaps his face, leaving a dark red handprint on his cheek. He grabs her arm painfully and swings her around to face him.  
  
"Look at me! You could have gotten killed out there, and where would we be? This mission could already be a failure because of your stupid, juvenile, unthinking actions! Gad! I don't know why Hawk decided to team me up with one of the most juvenile Joes he's could find. He knows how much I hate having to train people on the fly! Not to mention doing something that's not directly related to my primary MOS!" he yells at her, letting go of her wrist, trying hard not to lose his temper.  
  
She violently jerks her arm away from him and trudges slowly to the bathroom, looking back once at him, a single tear sliding down her cheek, and locks the door behind her. She then leans against the door, letting her emotions loose at last, tears streaming down her face. Once again, she had lived up to the moniker of gutter trash that her family had given her.  
  
He stands in the middle of the room and forces himself to calm down. He takes a few deep breaths and then notices a small sobbing sound. He kicks himself as he realizes that it was Cadie that is crying, and that he is the cause; he'd treated her like something less than human. He was no better than her mother, who had been trying all of the young woman's life to kill her or force her to commit suicide.  
  
He slowly walks over to the bathroom and softly knocks on the door.  
  
"What do you want now?" she angrily asks him.  
  
"You. I mean... I want to talk to you."  
  
She opens the door a crack, and peeks out. "Go ahead; tell me it was my fault. Everything else is."  
  
He suddenly realizes why she had reacted the way she did. His blood goes cold as it dawns on him where most, if not all, of her scars had come from. "I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me. I didn't know. It's just that ...you scared the hell out of me when you went storming out of here in just your underwear and a towel. You're not up to full strength yet, and I didn't want anything to happen to you. You're far too valuable to me...I mean, to the team."  
  
He pushes the door open farther and slips in, gathering her body close to his, resting his cheek on the top of her head.  
  
She cries even harder as he reveals the level of his fright. He helps her over to the bed and sits down, pulling her onto his lap.  
  
"Cry it out, little one. Let it go. You'll feel better." He holds her and comforts her, rocking her like a small child while she cries out all the pain and fears that she has hidden inside all of her life. They stay like that for about half an hour. He becomes lost in thought for a few minutes, thinking about what might have happened to her in the past and when he comes back to himself, notices that she is no longer crying.  
  
"I think we better get going, or this mission will never get started. What do you think, Mr. Manning?" She asks him with a smile, impudently. She bounces off of his lap and heads for the door.  
  
"I think you're right," he replies, "But aren't you forgetting something?" He looks pointedly at the wheelchair in the corner.  
  
"Oh, yeah. Right." She settles herself into the chair as he gets dressed. She slaps herself on the wrist to get her mind off of the single track it seemed to be on whenever he was near. He goes to the door and opens it to take their overnight bags to the truck. He leaves it open.  
  
He comes back in and, as he leans down to help her put her shoes on, she reaches out and cups his cheek. "I'm sorry," she whispers. He takes her hand and plants a kiss on her palm, as another couple walks by the door.  
  
"You're forgiven, little one. It was my fault anyway. I do love you, Mrs. Manning. And I will forever. Now, are you ready to continue our little trip?" he asks. She nods.  
  
He pushes the wheelchair out of the room and helps her into his truck. They continue the journey until they reach the address that was given to them by Hawk; their new home. 


	5. the first night of surprises

He helps her out of the truck and into the chair and they start to unpack and move stuff in. James is amazed at the level of prowess that she has shown with the wheelchair. "Where did you learn to use a wheelchair so easily?"  
  
"I was confined to a wheelchair for about six and a half months when I was in the Air Force, before I switched over to the Army, after surgery on my back because of injuries sustained while I was growing up. It's like riding a bike, you don't forget."  
  
"Oh. Cool."  
  
When they finally get the last boxes unloaded and into the house and a few of them unpacked, James carries her up the stairs to the master bedroom. "I want you to do the decorating, just like any housewife would. Do it the way you want it. If you want to hire someone, we can do that, too. I just want you to be happy. We could buy this house, after the mission, if you like it."  
  
She looks at him with surprise in her eyes, and a bit of wariness. He helps her make the bed, and they finish in less than twenty minutes.  
  
Almost as soon as they finish, the doorbell rings. He carries her back down the stairs and into the living room where they had left her wheelchair. Then he goes to answer the door.  
  
A few of their new neighbors are standing on the porch, welcoming them to the neighborhood. Cadie, seated in the wheelchair, rolls over to meet them, and invites them in for coffee.  
  
The group sits around the living room, while Cadie hangs out in the kitchen, making a pot of coffee for everyone else and a cup of hot tea for herself. She unpacks a set of coffee mugs and puts them on a tray. She puts the carafe of coffee on the tray also, placing a mug of hot tea in the cup holder that she had attached to her chair.  
  
As she rolls slowly into the living room, James jumps up to take the tray from her lap. She hands it to him, and he passes out the cups and pours the coffee as she maneuvers over and sets the brakes on her chair.  
  
She stays pretty quiet for most of the conversation and lets him take the lead. The group makes small talk for a little while, with the neighbors giving the couple information and directions to where things can be found. Soon after it gets dark, the neighbors leave, giving them promises of invitations to parties and get-togethers to come. Soon after that, the pair decides to go to bed.  
  
James once again carries Cadie up the stairs, and this time he places her on the small chair of her vanity while he goes into the bathroom and runs her a bath. He helps her undress and carries her to the bathroom and gently lowers her into the bathtub.  
  
She scoots up near the faucet to take advantage of the heat from the water and doesn't notice him undressing until he climbs into the tub with her.  
  
She hastily turns around, shocked. He laughs and pulls her into his lap. "If you're going to be my wife, and you're going to be in a wheelchair, we'd better get used to getting in the bath together. Besides, I'm wearing shorts."  
  
She slips her hand down to find out that he was telling the truth. "I won't do anything that you're not ready for, Little Bit. If we do do anything, it will be because you want it as badly as I do," he tells her softly.  
  
She blushes and looks down, embarrassed. He puts his hand underneath her chin and tenderly lifts her face to look into her eyes. "I understand. You're afraid because of what some people have done to you in the past."  
  
"You have no idea, James. I'm t-t-terrified of people. I'm scared to death of being in a group, I can't handle parties, I refuse to go to dances and banquets are off limits to me, and I'm not too keen on being with people, period. I'm tired of going somewhere and then someone screaming and running away the other direction because I'm so fat, ugly, and stupid."  
  
He holds her closer. "No way, honey. You're so beautiful that I saw most of the guys wanting to hate me because I was chosen to work with you on this mission. And I have never seen anyone as slim as you and still healthy. I'll bet you don't weigh one hundred ten pounds soaking wet. I know your pain, little one. I knew it from the first time I saw you up close in the dojo after you took me down. I'll try to help you all I can. You're under my protection now, remember that. In the meantime, let's just get used to doing things like a married couple, which includes sharing a bathtub until you're healed." He grins wickedly at her.  
  
"Actually, I weigh ninety-six pounds dripping water with a wet towel wrapped around my hair."  
  
His jaw drops as he listens to her admission. Only ninety-six pounds? She couldn't be serious! No wonder it felt like he was carrying a small child whenever he picked her up. He reaches past her to retrieve the bottle of shower gel on the rim of the tub. Then, he pours some on his hand and starts washing her back. He uses gentle strokes as he remembers the wounds on her back are not fully healed and are still tender. He can feel the tension in her muscles.  
  
"When was the last time you relaxed, babe?"  
  
"I can't remember, I don't think I ever have. The way I grew up, I never knew where or when the next blow would fall, so I had to be ready for action at any second."  
  
He grouses to himself for a couple of moments as he rinses the soap off of her back, wondering how any parent could be so cruel as hers had been. He knew that if they ever had a chance of becoming a couple for longer than this mission, it would take lots of time and patience on his part.  
  
He then trades the shower gel for a cup and a bottle of shampoo and conditioner, and fills a cup with water and wets her hair. He massages some of the shampoo into her hair and gently starts to wash it.  
  
She sits there quietly, letting him work some magic of his own for a few minutes. "James, what's wrong with me?" She softly asks him.  
  
He looks at her strangely, thinking that she was referring to the wounds.  
  
"Why didn't my mama ever want me? Why did she always treat me like a piece of no good gutter trash? Why do people try to get rid of me as quickly as they can?"  
  
"Oh, jeez. No wonder she's afraid of people and feels like an outsider. The one person that should have loved her and made things all right hated her. She feels so worthless because she was never welcome at home and was always criticized no matter what. No wonder she works so hard. She thinks she has to work to win people's approval, that they won't like her if she doesn't work so hard. She was always on the outside looking in, even in her own family. Now I see why she can't remember ever relaxing, and why she's now a workaholic," he thinks.  
  
"She was just jealous of you. She realized that you would one day be better looking and more powerful than she ever could have imagined being. Hold still for a moment. I'm going to try something."  
  
He puts his hands lightly on her shoulders and chants something under his breath to himself as he begins to softly knead the tense muscles. The skin under his hands grows hot and she feels like it spreads to the rest of her body.  
  
She had never mentioned it to him that the pain was getting strong, but somehow, he had known. She now felt like it had lessened considerably, but it was still enough to keep her tense and awake.  
  
"Do you need some painkillers, darling?" he asks her, lovingly, pointing past her head to a microphone that had just been stuck to the bathroom window.  
  
"Do we still have some? I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight without some help," she answers, going along with it for the benefit of the listener.  
  
"I think Dr. Steen knew what he was doing when he packed it in with your other medications. I'll go get them as soon as we're out of here." He lowers his voice to where only she could hear him. "I need to take my shorts off because someone is watching, and then I'll get us out of here. Feel free to look if you want."  
  
He watches her blush again as her jaw drops and he chuckles. He wriggles out of his shorts and stands up, picking her up as he rises. He sets her standing with his arm for support as he gets a towel and wraps it around her. He lifts her back up and carries her into the bedroom where he places her on the stool in front of her vanity. He then coolly walks back into the bathroom and gets a towel for himself, knowing that her eyes are following his every movement.  
  
"Mmmm, no wonder they call him Grand Slam. That's the biggest bat I've ever seen. I wonder what it would be like to..." she begins to think.  
  
He strolls over to the corner of the master bedroom and roots around in one of the boxes for the painkillers that Lifeline had packed for her.  
  
"Oh, jeez," he groans. "You think you can handle my clumsy butt giving you an injection? That's all he packed. I thought that he said that there were some pills in here."  
  
"I told him not to pack the pills. They're too easy to get addicted to. I know from experience. Someone else's, not mine. Hurry up and get it over with."  
  
"Good thing that he pre-filled these. I'm no good at eyeballing small measurements like this. I know this will hurt, but please, don't do anything too extreme."  
  
He comes over to her and decides to use the syringe on her left thigh. He preps her leg, propping it across his knees and she reaches up to hold his shoulders as he sticks the needle in. He feels her tighten her grip for a second and then remembers how long it will take for the medicine to kick in.  
  
He hurries over to her suitcase and pulls out a pair of white lace underwear and a chaste cotton nightgown that he finds on top and feels himself getting hard as his imagination starts working overtime. He helps her put them on before he tucks her into bed, already drowsy, the painkillers already taking effect.  
  
He tucks the blankets around her as he hears the doorbell ring again. He swears under his breath, hoping that Cadie wouldn't wake up. With a tired sigh, he wearily goes downstairs to answer the door, finding a woman alone on the porch.  
  
She is obviously past her prime, but it appeared that she hadn't noticed yet. James took note of the fact that she wore too much make-up, and way too much perfume, as he could smell it before he'd opened the door.  
  
"Can I help you?" he asks her. He didn't recognize the woman as Spitfyre's mother, who had broken out of the stockade and was out to start any trouble she could since they had thwarted her on the base.  
  
"No, hot stuff, but maybe I can help you. I see that your wife there is paralyzed, and ugly as hell. I know she can't be giving you the kind of pleasure that you want and need like I can. You know you want me." She comes towards him, but he backs off.  
  
He looks at her critically, "Yeah, you're right. I want you. I want you off my porch and gone," he says as he shuts the door in her face and locks it.  
  
"Brazen little hussy. I'm a happily married man, even if my wife is a paraplegic, and we're not really married in anything more than name. It's more than just sex to me. It's also companionship, humor, and intellect, all the things that Cadie has, not to mention her innocence," he thinks.  
  
He checks the peephole and discovers the woman is still there. He decides that if she is still there in five minutes, he'll go call the cops. He goes to both the side door into the garage and the back door of the house, making sure they are locked. When he comes back to the front door, the woman is gone, but she had left him a message on the porch. He goes out and picks up the note, reading it and made the decision to keep it, as it looked like the kind of thing a stalker would write.  
  
He adjusts the towel around his waist and mounts the stairs to the master bedroom. He pulls on a pair of boxer briefs and slides into the bed with Cadie. He leans down and kisses her, thinking how perfect she would have been for the role of Sleeping Beauty and how lousy a Prince Charming he would be. He holds her close all night, hoping that when she finds out about him, that she will be brave and strong enough to handle it.  
  
What he doesn't know is that the painkillers had already worn off, and Cadie had become somewhat conscious and is thinking the same thing about him. She drifts back to sleep and cuddles up to him as close as she can, knowing that her time with him is short, and that her dreams are about to get dashed once again, soon. 


	6. As Time Goes By

As the days pass by, James and Cadie fall into a comfortable routine. He gets up at four thirty in the morning, showers and gets dressed, makes breakfast for both of them, and goes back upstairs to wake her.  
  
He leaves for his cover job as an insurance investigator at six o'clock and is away all day. He calls her at lunch, and finds out if there is anything that she needs him to get on his way home. When he gets home, she usually has dinner ready for him. Sometimes, he picks up something to go on the way home.

It turns out that she is a superb cook, and he realizes that he is really going to have to work to stay in shape because of it. He also discovered that she was a very talented baker. He loved her cinnamon chocolate chip cookies.  
  
On the days that she has therapy appointments, the routine varies a little, but not much. He sleeps until seven-thirty and then gets her up, taking her to the therapy center at nine, and staying with her. He usually runs a couple of his cases by her to see if she can find anything he might have missed, which she had a knack for doing. When she gets finished in the late afternoon, they usually eat out somewhere.  
  
During the weekends, when he is off, they usually work around the house. Yard work, upkeep, the normal things a married couple would do.  
  
After a number of months, when he calls home, she has an unusual request.  
  
"Do you need me to pick anything up on the way home today, babe?"  
  
"As a matter of fact, James, I do. You got a pen and paper handy? I need six packages of Jello, six two liter bottles each of Ginger ale, Cream soda and root beer."  
  
"What for, if I'm allowed to ask?"  
  
"You'll find out when you get home. Besides, I've got plans for tonight, and they do include you."  
  
"Ooh, Will I like it?"  
  
"Maybe. Let's just say that it's time that I did something that I've been putting off for a while."  
  
"What is it?"  
  
"You'll find out."  
  
As he gets ready to leave work that day, a few coworkers approach him. They invite him to join a group of people that are dissatisfied with the way things are done. He tells them that he'll think about it and tell them next week.  
  
Not used to wearing a suit, as soon as he gets to his truck, he loosens his tie and shrugs off his jacket. He unbuttons the top two buttons of his shirt and starts the truck, pulling out of the employee parking lot and into traffic.  
  
It takes him about fifteen minutes to go by the grocery store and get what he has on his list, wondering all the while on the drive home what devious purpose Cadie has for all the sodas.  
  
When he gets home, he heads for the door, but before he gets there, Cadie is there to meet him, standing on the porch, wearing braces on her legs that helped to take the pressure off of her knees.  
  
He is, at the very least, surprised to see her up on her feet by herself, knowing how painful it must be for her. He is even more surprised when he carries the packages into the kitchen and watches her begin to work her magic with the drinks.  
  
She places the new garbage can on the floor and starts pouring bottle after bottle of soda into it. She dumps the jello powder into it, stirs it up, and then shoves it across the floor and into the walk-in freezer.  
  
"Now, we let that sit for a couple of hours, and then we attack it. Been a darn long time since I had a Hammerhead."  
  
He watches her in puzzlement as she walks right up to him and kisses him passionately.  
  
"She's finally comfortable with me!" he thinks, happily, throwing himself into the kiss.  
  
Desire slams into him as she slides her hands lower and caresses the front of his pants. He is breathing heavily as he pushes her back a few steps and turns his back to her, trying to get control of his reactions before he lost it all and took her right there on the floor, like a whore.  
  
She misinterprets this as a rejection and closes her eyes for a second to get a hold on her emotions. She then turns and races up the stairs as fast as she can.  
  
James stands there for a few minutes, bewildered, and curses as he suddenly figures out what has happened. He rushes up the stairs behind her and follows her path into her bedroom.  
  
He finds her lying across their bed, crying softly. He silently moves over to her and begins to rub her back. He tucks a pillow under her chest to help arch her back. He continues to massage her back, getting farther and farther from her spine and ever closer to her breasts. He doesn't fail to notice the small moan that she makes when he pulls away. As he sits there, she rolls over and gets up, coming over to stand in front of him.  
  
"Are you sure?" he asks her, standing up and taking the few steps forward to bring him into arm's reach of her.  
  
She nods, love shining in her eyes. "I have never been surer of anything in my life, James. I've had lots of time to think about this, and I realized that life is too short not to do what I want to every once in a while, and I need to exorcise these demons from my past."  
  
"Then your wish is my command, princess." He leans past her and turns on the stereo. "Dream On" by The Oak Ridge Boys is playing.  
  
She puts her arms around his neck and he lowers his head to hers. He brushes his lips softly against hers and feels her quiver. He then attacks her lips with his. "Open your mouth for me, little one. Let me inside you."  
  
She opens her lips under his and feels his tongue enter her mouth and start mating with hers. She feels him reach up to her shirt and unbutton it at the same time she does the same to him. She finishes first and pulls his dress shirt off, literally ripping his t-shirt off of him and puts her hands on his bare chest.  
  
He cups her ample breasts in his large hands. They fit perfectly. He bends down and she arches against him, threading her fingers through his dark hair, seeking more.  
  
He slides his one arm down and behind her knees, wrapping the other around her shoulders, picking her up and carrying her the few steps to the bed. He lays her down and takes off her braces and pants.  
  
She moans in protest as he pulls away. He reaches for her arms and places them above her head, telling her, "I'll be right back, baby. I just need to get my pants off."  
  
He gets out of his slacks and boxers as quickly and as gracefully as he can, almost ripping them off. He lies down next to her on the bed and pulls her into his arms powerfully, almost painfully. He seals his mouth to hers and plunders her mouth with his tongue.  
  
He takes her hands and puts them on his chest, letting her know that she was free to explore his body as he was doing hers, giving her the chance to get to know him without him forcing himself onto her. She takes the chance that he has given her and runs her hands over his chest, tracing the old scars and tangling her fingers in the sparse amount of fine hair that he has between his pectoral muscles and then lightly trailing her hand downwards, following the line of hair descending from his navel.  
  
"I want you so badly, babe. You have no idea how long I've wanted this. I want to do it all to you. I want to take my time, make sure you're getting as much pleasure as I am; and I want to nail you as hard and as fast as I can. I want to be so deep inside you, honey, that you can never get rid of me. I want to plant my seed inside you and watch it grow. I want to catch the baby as it comes out and know that both the baby and mother are mine."  
  
She clamps her mouth shut, trying not to scream as she becomes lost in the pleasure of their activities.  
  
"Open your mouth little girl. Let it go. I want to hear you come."  
  
She whimpers as he groans and moments later, both yell each other's names as they both come at the same time. After he catches his breath, he rolls them over to where they are lying on their sides, facing each other, still joined together.  
  
"So that's why they call you Grand Slam..." she giggles.  
  
He chuckles with her and responds with, "And that's the reason they call you Spitfyre. Why didn't you tell me that you were afraid to have sex?"  
  
"I thought that you knew the reason already. I wasn't afraid to have sex with you, I was afraid that it wouldn't just be casual sex like you wanted. I knew that if I did have sex with you that I would fall even deeper under your spell than I already have."  
  
He pulls her close to him and kisses her. "I never wanted just casual sex. I wanted something more meaningful, like you. Honey, sex with you is not something casual; it's a life altering experience. If we weren't already married, I'd propose to you." She immediately recognizes that there was a bug on the windowsill, and it wasn't from their organization.  
  
"I have to confess something, James; I need to come clean about something. One of the reasons I'm so afraid of sex is because, when I was about six or seven, my mother was still heavily into drugs and was trying to figure out how to pay for a tattoo." She stops and swallows.  
  
"Go on. Don't be afraid, I'm here with you and you'll never be alone again. You can tell me anything, and I'll never think any lower of you. I'll be your friend even if no one else will." He strokes her hair absently.  
  
"She negotiated a deal with the two teenage boys on how to pay for it. The next morning, she left me at the house with the boys and no one else. All I can remember is the boys hitting me and then pulling my shirt off. I black out there for the first time. I fought them tooth and nail when they tried to take my pants off, but they were too big. Everything goes black then, again, and the next thing I remember is that I was huddled on the couch, trying to cover myself with a crocheted afghan that was lying there. When she finally returned, the boys gave me back my clothes and told her that I fought them and didn't want to do whatever happened. She cursed me all the way across town to the house. I never knew why. I think, years later, I put two and two together and came up with four. And even now, I can't listen to Sixteenth Avenue by Lacy J. Dalton or I'll start having episodes of PTSD."  
  
He snarls as she relates one of the most shameful secrets from her past, realizing how embarrassed she is, and how scared she is that he won't want her anymore. He suddenly reaches out and gathers her trembling body close to his, hoping that she'd soon feel at ease enough with him to tell him all of her hidden secrets. "It's not your fault, baby girl. There was nothing you could have done to stop them. The best thing you can do now is to forgive them and go on with your life."  
  
He kisses her and discovers that she's ready for round two, and that, surprisingly, so is he. And so the night goes on... they alternate between napping and making love.  
  
A/N: Some of her memories actually happened to me. The song is one of them, and so is the incident with the boys. The only thing changed there is the actions and reaction of her mother. I don't think mine knows about it happening. The drink is something my fiancée and I came up with one weekend before we got married.


	7. Disappeared

The months pass by them quickly. They become as close as a truly married couple. Soon it becomes obvious that something is wrong with Cadie. She schedules an appointment with the doctor, and is looking forward to the appointment.

Grand Slam gets up the next morning and goes to work as usual after another round of hot, steamy, wild, uninhibited monkey sex. When he calls her at lunch as usual, she doesn't answer the phone. It doesn't really bother him because there were a myriad of reasons. He keeps trying her cell phone, but it's turned off. All he wanted to know is why she was suddenly sick, and what was making her that way.  
  
When he gets home that afternoon, the house is silent, and Cadie isn't there to greet him on the porch, like normal, so James tries the front door. It opens silently under his touch. He looks everywhere for his woman, but Cadie is nowhere to be found. He finds her car in the garage, so he figures that she has gone out somewhere with a friend. It dawns on him that her cell phone is still on the counter where she had charged it the night before. He becomes concerned, but decides to hold off in case she called to tell him that it was an emergency that had called her away, tot ake a friend to the hospital or something.  
  
He gets worried when she doesn't return that night. She usually would leave a note, if she wasn't going to be home when he got there and if not, she'd have called him. He calls Hawk to find out if he called her back in, and when he finds out that he didn't, talks to him about what he's going to do.  
  
After two days, James files a missing persons report. He works with the police department to find Cadie. They get a few leads in the next couple of months, but they usually pan out to nothing.  
  
He stays in Indianapolis and keeps working on his end of the mission as he tries to find his wife.  
  
Six weeks later, after the investigation grows cold, he gets a note in the mail.  
  
"If you think that she is good enough for you, then come find her on her home turf. We suggest that you just forget about this worthless piece of gutter trash and go on with your life. She will not live for much longer."  
  
There is no signature, but he has an idea who took her and why, given the confession that she made to him earlier. He calls Hawk and lets him know what had just happened and what he was going to do. He asks to speak to Mainframe to get some information and requests the assistance of a few friends.  
  
Hawk lets him know that he would speak to the gang and find any who were willing to take vacation time and help him.  
  
James tries to go back to the bed and sleep, but the tangled sheets are only reminders of what he and Cadie had shared that he was now in danger of losing forever. He tosses and turns, and finally gets up and paces back and forth across the bedroom the rest of the night.  
  
The next morning the doorbell rings, and James opens the door to find, not the one or two that he had expected, but darn near the whole team. They told him that they had left a skeleton crew at the base and that they were here to help him find Spitfyre, because they all considered her an innocent little sister that they needed to protect.  
  
Gung Ho takes charge as they head for her hometown, because he knew the attitudes, customs and area, also being from South Louisiana. The first thing they do is take over a hotel for a temporary command center in Slidell, about forty miles from the town where Spitfyre grew up, Bogalusa.  
  
Hawk and Grand Slam go to her grandparents' home, where she was raised. Everyone else spread out around town to see if they could come up with something.  
  
As Hawk and James questioned her grandparents, her mother showed up, demanding to know what they saw in Spitfyre, and bragging about how easy it was to get her to let her in and to capture her.  
  
James knew that this was the person that had taken his woman. He suddenly knew where Spitfyre was being hidden.  
  
When he jumped up to go to her, her mother also jumped up and tried to threaten them with a gun. The guys weren't fazed by it. She fired once, hitting Grand Slam in the leg, grazing him, but knocking him to his knees. Hawk grabbed his own weapon and drew down on her. Law, who had been hanging behind a bit with Lifeline, arrested Spitfyre's mother for kidnapping, attempted murder, and assault.  
  
Grand Slam vaulted up in obvious pain with Hawk right behind him, and rushed to the place where Spitfyre was being held, a small basement storage room under her parents' bedroom. "I can't believe that she was so stupid as to let her mother, her worst enemy in the world, into the house and then be captured," James told Hawk, struggling to pry open the door, not realizing that Spitfyre could hear every word of it.  
  
When the door burst inward, Spitfyre cringed in the corner. When she saw that it was James and Hawk, she stood. Lifeline wasn't very far behind them and he watched as she noted their identities and fainted from relief. James managed to catch her before she hit the ground. They call for an ambulance while he and Lifeline treat her as much as they can.


	8. running away

She is transported to the hospital, where she is put in the ICU for a couple of nights and when she is stabilized, transferred to the infirmary at the base. James refuses to leave her side and the rest of the unit backs him up. They all take turns watching over her. Day after day for the next two weeks they stay to let her know how much they care. They've sent and brought so many flowers so far that the room looks and smells like a jungle.  
  
The next day, Grand Slam is with her, getting ready to turn the watch over to Mainframe as usual, and is tiredly slumping against the bed, laying his head down on it. He is asleep when Cadie awakens. She takes in the situation and then stealthily gets up and out of the bed, unhooking the IV's and monitors, and turning them off, slipping out of the room, thanking her lucky stars that her secondary MOS was as a medic.  
  
She goes to her quarters and gets dressed. She then sits down at the desk in the corner and writes a letter to Hawk, a letter of resignation to go with it, and a letter for Grand Slam, trying to explain to him what she didn't have the courage to tell him to his face.  
  
She silently slips into Hawk's office and leaves the notes on his desk. She then grabs her purse and jumps into her car, which was towed back to the base with James's truck after the kidnapping. She then leaves the base by one of the lesser used gates and heads for the highway. No one notices, and the few that did thought that it was an altogether different situation.  
  
When Mainframe comes in to take his shift of the watch, James is still asleep on the bed and Cadie is gone. The search immediately commences. Hawk soon finds the notes on his desk and reads them, calling off the search afterwards.  
  
Grand Slam storms into the office, slamming the door open. "What the hell is this about calling off the search? Have you found her yet?"  
  
Hawk looks serenely over at him. He hands him the letter that was addressed to him. He sat down on the couch in the corner and read.  
  
Dearest James,  
  
I know that you will be very highly pissed off when you get this note. I can't blame you. I know that you will probably hate me for sneaking out like I did.  
  
I have to explain and when I do, I hope you understand my need to get away from the situation.  
  
These last few months, as we played husband and wife while we were undercover have been the happiest days of my life, wheelchair confinement notwithstanding.  
  
I was never wanted as a child. I think the politically correct term for me these days is either "abused and neglected" or "One who fell through the cracks". As I grew older, I discovered that people would do anything to be rid of me. I tried suicide at least three times that I can remember, and probably more that I can't.  
  
One of the reasons that I am so shy with you guys is that, for most of my years, I was an unwilling sex slave to a guy who lived down the road from my family. No one else knew or did anything about it if they did. No one cared.  
  
I began to hate being around people because I was always looked down on and frowned upon. I never could figure out why. That's when I realized that if my own parents didn't want me, then no one else ever would. That is the reason that I was so happy to be so solitary.  
  
I haven't been to a party in twenty years because the only reason people would invite me was to humiliate me in front of their friends and relatives.  
  
I truly got to the point where I couldn't have cared less about people, and then I met you.  
  
You made me feel like I was a human. One who could and should be loved. You made me feel like there was something to live for at last. You made me feel wanted for the first time in my life. You also made me feel safe and loved like no one else could. It scared the hell out of me.  
  
I fell deeply in love with you when I first saw you standing there, in the dojo, with Snake Eyes, complaining because you thought that I was too small and perfect. I knew then that you were way out of my league, and that I had no chance with you, and I know it now.  
  
When we were thrown together on this mission, I was ecstatic. And that night we made love, James, was when I felt the happiest that I have ever been.  
  
Unfortunately, I was never meant to be happy. I just can't trust myself. My heart was telling me to just give in and love you as much as I wanted to, but my head was telling me to prepare for trouble.  
  
Like the song from Evita says, "I don't expect my love affairs to last too long. Never fool myself that my dreams will come true. Being used to trouble I anticipate it, but all the same I hate it, wouldn't you?" I gave up dreaming years ago; there was no point in it. Especially when your dreams give you nothing but heartbreak. I don't even dream of one day having a home or family of my own. I know that it'll never happen.  
  
I had to save you from getting too far involved with me. I'm poison. I want you to go on and find a girl who is perfect for you, someone who can love you the way you should be loved.  
  
I will always love you from a distance, and will always remember that one magical night when, for a little while at least, you held me in your arms and made me feel like I was a princess.  
  
Love always, Cadie  
  
"I can't believe that she thinks so low of herself."  
  
Hawk looked over at him, "She left a note for me as well, and also, she left this..."  
  
"What is it?" Grand Slam asked.  
  
Hawk looks at him with pain in his eyes, "It's a letter of resignation. It seems that she figured we were just taking her on the team out of pity. I know what you're going to do. You're going to find her, am I right?"  
  
"If it's the last thing I do, sir." Grand Slam tells him.  
  
"You really love her, don't you?" Hawk asked him.  
  
"Yes, sir, I do. I had planned to propose to her about us staying married even now, but..."  
  
"Then I've already talked to Beach Head, and you're cleared for leave as of now until further notice. Don't come back without her, James. You need her as badly as we do. We all love her, and I know that you are willing to die for her, and so are the rest of us. She's the best of the best when it comes to demolitions, and the team will always have a spot for her, and you, too."  
  
James strides out of Hawk's office with pain etched onto his face. He doesn't fully understand the demons that she just revealed to him, but he understands enough. If he ever got his hands on the guy she spoke of being the slave to, he'd commit murder.  
  
He stopped in the hall, suddenly knowing without asking where she had gone. Back to the one place where she had been the happiest. He runs for the door, jerking his keys from his pocket.  
  
Grand Slam slams his truck into gear and squeals out of the parking lot spraying gravel. The rest of the unit understands where he's going and why he's doing this and gets out of his way. 


	9. Discoveries

He gets back to Indianapolis, and immediately begins a search for Cadie. He calls Mainframe.  
  
"You got any idea where she might be? I'm in town, and I've checked out all the places we used to go, and she's not been seen at any of them."  
  
"No clue, although I've managed to narrow it down to the north end of town, using the DMV records. I'll try looking for her by using her middle name."  
  
Both men keep doggedly trying to track their missing comrade. A couple of months pass when Mainframe suddenly calls James in the middle of the night, scaring the poor guy silly.  
  
"I've found her!" Mainframe tells him excitedly. "I tracked her to a small trailer park on Reinhardt Avenue. She's in unit 42, one that's set a little ways away from the rest of them. Apparently, she's a young single woman not working at the moment, but living off an inheritance. "  
  
"Thanks, Mainframe, I'll be eternally grateful."  
  
"No problem, just don't come back empty handed. All of us here on the base miss her, and we need her bad."  
  
"I'm going out there in the morning. I'll talk with you later."  
  
James finds the address with little trouble. He stops at the office to make sure that she is in the trailer park, and that Mainframe had the right unit number.  
  
"You're the one they call Grand Slam, right?" the proprietress asked, after he had shown her a picture of Cadie. He nods. "She said that her name was Felicitie and she told me that you would probably show up, looking for her, and that I should tell you that she is in unit 42. Be careful with her, sir, she's become friends with a lot of people here, and we wouldn't want to see her hurt."  
  
"Those of us in our unit, ma'am, don't want to hurt her if we can help it. Technically, she's considered AWOL, but there are special circumstances in this case, and no one on the base wants to see her hurt, either." He finds out the directions to the unit his wife is in and heads out of the door, leaving his truck parked by the office. He hikes down the road to unit 42 and stops to collect his courage before he goes and knocks on the door.  
  
"Come in!" Cadie calls as she hears the knock, thinking that it's probably one of the neighbors' kids come to check on her for their parents. She's sitting in the rocking chair in the living room of her trailer, doing cross-stitch on a small pillow.

She looks up in shock as James bursts through the door. He darts across to her and drops to his knees next to the chair.  
  
"What are you doing here? I didn't want you to look for me. You deserve far better than me," she said in evident pain.  
  
"Don't ever run away like that again, little bit. You scared all of us on the base. I need you. We need you. You're the best at what you do, and we need your expertise. And...And I...I...I love you. "  
  
Cadie pushes herself up out of the chair to go check on the loaf of bread that she had baking in the oven, pulling it out and putting on the counter to cool and as she turns, it suddenly becomes very obvious that she is heavily pregnant. James is silent as he digests this new information.  
  
"When is the baby due?" he asks her, grabbing her arm painfully, anguish burning in his eyes and written all over his face. "Were you planning on ever telling me? Why didn't you let me know in that note you left?"  
  
She turns around and looks at him, pain apparent in her eyes. She stretches, putting her hands on the small of her back and rubbing. "I didn't tell you in that note because I didn't know at the time. I'm sorry. I was going to tell you when I found out, but my contact on the base told me that you had already left and he didn't know where you'd gone. I'm due in about four months."  
  
He gets up and moves behind her, pulling her hands away and rubbing her back himself as he calculates the timing. It must have been that first night that they had come together, he recognizes in shock. She moans in pleasure, and leans back lightly against him. He slides his hands around her to rest on the swell of her belly, feeling his child move for the first time.  
  
"Cadie, please don't tell me that you'd have brought this child into the world without a proper name. I don't want any child of mine to be a bastard."  
  
"What are you trying to say? This child would have had a name; mine. Bastard is just a state of mind. I know; I've been there and lived that."  
  
"Didn't that teach you anything? Don't I have anything to say on the matter?"  
  
"Considering how you thought I was so stupid as to let my worst enemy in and let myself get captured, I don't really know. I don't know about anything anymore, James."  
  
He sinks down in the nearest chair, putting his elbows on his knees and dropping his face into his hands.  
  
"Oh, sweetheart, please forgive me for that. I was angry and upset that the woman I loved was being held hostage and beaten, and that I couldn't do anything to protect her. I felt so guilty, like there was something I could have done. I still feel guilty, even now."  
  
"There's nothing to forgive, James. I understand. I figured it out after a couple of weeks. I just...had to have my space to digest all this information... our relationship, and my reactions to it, things like that," she replied, coming over to stand in front of him.

When she threads her fingers in his chestnut hair, he suddenly reaches out and wraps his arms around her waist, laying his head down on the swell of her stomach, feeling the baby move. He smiles in delight. She was carrying his child. The baby was his!  
  
"We understood your reasoning, and that's why Hawk decided not to accept your resignation. You're still part of the team, and we need you and want you back, badly."  
  
"R-r-really?"  
  
"Really. As I recall, Hawk and the rest of the gang's last words to me were not to come back without you. I wasn't going to try to come back until I had convinced you that you needed to do one thing."  
  
"What's that?"  
  
"Formally marry me and make me the happiest guy on the base if not the planet."  
  
"Oh James, are you sure?"  
  
"I've never been surer of anything in my life, Cadie. I love you. Will you please stay married to me?"  
  
"Of course, I will. Oh, cripes." She looks at the clock on the wall. "I've got an appointment in about an hour, and it'll take me half an hour to get there. And my car's still in the shop, and I'll bet Patty had to work today."  
  
"My truck is over at the office. Come on. I'll give you a lift." She takes her keys off of the peg by the door, locks it, and they leave. They walk along hand in hand in companionable silence until they get to the truck. He lifts her up and into the passenger seat, leaning into her and kissing her, deeply.  
  
She returns the kiss in full measure. He then goes around and swings himself into the driver's seat, leaning over and getting a small box out of the glove compartment. He tosses it to her as he starts the truck and pulls out of the parking lot.  
  
She looks in it, and reaches up and unlatches the gold chain that she wears around her neck. She threads the ring onto the chain and then reattaches it on her neck.  
  
"What? My fingers are too swollen to wear it on my hand." she explains when she sees the queer look he's giving her.  
  
She gives him directions to the doctor's office, and when they walk in hand in hand, they get some funny looks from the receptionists. Cadie just laughs, while James gets a little embarrassed.  
  
"This the father?" Patty, the secretary, asks as Cadie signs in.  
  
Cadie grins, "Yep. Patty, this is my fiancé, James. James, this is Patty, one of my buddies. She lives a couple of doors down from me."  
  
"Hi."  
  
Patty grabs Cadie's sleeve and pulls her down to talk to her. "He's totally hot! Where'd you find him?"  
  
"We're both members of the same military unit. He's our laser cannoneer and I'm the demolitions specialist."  
  
"You? In the military? As small as you are?"  
  
"Yes, me. And when I first met him up close, I took his butt down, easily, without breaking a sweat."  
  
The nurse appears in the waiting room to get them just before Cadie lowers her body into one of the chairs. James, who is already sitting, jumps up and follows them into the exam room.  
  
"We're going to need a blood sample this time, Cadie. And you know the rest of the routine. The cup is already in the bathroom for you."  
  
Cadie goes to the bathroom, leaving James looking totally perplexed in the exam room. She gets back just as the doctor comes in the room. When Cadie sheds her shirt for the exam, James is taken by surprise when he realizes that her chest has grown, along with the rest of her.  
  
The doctor spreads some gel on her stomach and when he finds the baby's heartbeat with the monitor, James looks around. Cadie notices his baffled look and asks, "What's wrong?"  
  
"Who's banging on the wall? I didn't notice them doing any renovations."  
  
"Nobody, silly. That's the baby's heartbeat." Cadie replies lovingly as James looks at her in awe. The doctor goes into the hallway to get an ultrasound monitor. When he finds the baby with the ultrasound, James can't take his eyes off of his fiancée's abdomen. He recalls what he said to her the night that the baby was conceived, and marveled at how his dreams were coming true, albeit not in the fashion he had originally imagined that they would.  
  
"Do you want to know the sex?" asked the doctor.  
  
"No," both James and Cadie said at the same time.  
  
"We'd like it to be a surprise," says Cadie. "Otherwise, if we knew, it'd take all the fun out of it."  
  
"Is it okay for her to travel, doctor? I need to get her back home on the base before the whole unit comes after us."  
  
"She's fine. And the baby is developing right on schedule. All I need to know is where to send the records, and who to send them to." He leaves the room just as the nurse is coming in.  
  
The nurse comes in to take the blood sample, and James can feel Cadie tighten her grip on his hand when the nurse inserts the needle.  
  
James writes the address for the base infirmary on a piece of paper and hands it to the receptionist on their way out. He decides to take Cadie to the little park where they spent some wonderfully romantic evenings while undercover for a picnic lunch to celebrate. He calls Hawk, letting him know that they would be starting back to the base in a few days, as soon as they got things squared away there.

A/N: I couldn't resist having James react like he did in here. My husband thought the same thing when I was pregnant with our son. I knew that I had to do it this way.


	10. major loss

They stop by a little mom and pop diner and get milkshakes and hamburgers to go, and take them to the park. Cadie is surprised when James reaches into the back of the truck and gets a blanket, carrying it to their favorite spot under the branches of a willow tree overlooking the pond.  
  
She had thought that he'd forgotten about this place. She follows with the food and, after they eat, reclines on the blanket, watching James skip rocks, laughing and betting with him about who could skip them farther.  
  
He helps her up and hands her a couple of the rocks that he had found. She winds up and skips the first one six times before it goes under for good. She winds up a second time, and abruptly doubles over in pain.  
  
"What is it? What's wrong?" asked James, worried. He looks closely at her and notices that she is extremely pale, then he notices the blood running down her leg and pooling where she stood. "Mother of God!"  
  
He helps her over to the blanket, laying her down, and then scoops the whole shebang, blanket, Cadie and all, into his arms, carrying her to the truck. He quickly jumps in and starts it. He sprays gravel as he leaves the parking lot and speeds all the way to the hospital, driving like a maniac the whole way.  
  
He carries her into the emergency room and tries to stay near her as they whisk her into an exam room, but the ER staff won't let him stay. He goes to the waiting room and fills out the paperwork as much as he is able, and when a shadow falls over the clipboard, looks up to find the doctor standing over him.  
  
"Mr. Barney?"  
  
James nods, not trusting his voice.  
  
"I'm sorry, sir. We did all we could. We lost the baby, but we're still fighting for the mother. She keeps mumbling about something involving punishment for loving someone."  
  
"Can I see her?" James asked, hopefully.  
  
"Yes, maybe you can calm her down. And, by the way, the baby was a little girl. She was perfect in every way, just too small to survive."  
  
James's heart constricts painfully in his chest. They would have had a daughter.

The doctor leads James back to the room where they had put Cadie. When he walks over to the bedside and takes her hand, she immediately calms down, as if she knows that her knight in shining armor is there.

He bends over and talks to her. "We got to quit meeting like this, little bit. Every time I see you, you're in a hospital bed. First time, on the base after an attack; the second time, after the kidnapping, and now. We lost the baby this time, but maybe we can try again. Come back to me, Cadie, please. I don't want to lose you, now that I've just found you again."  
  
He lays his head down near hers, weeping for the loss of their daughter, and from the near loss of his beloved. He stays at her side all night, only getting up to get a snack around midnight. The same goes on for another couple of nights.  
  
Cadie slowly regains consciousness the second morning after as James sits silently at her side. She reaches up to touch his cheek and whispers, "I'm here, James. I'm not going to go anywhere."  
  
He turns his head and for the first time since they were separated in the ER, she sees his face. She knows in an instant what had happened. She had lost the baby.  
  
"Don't be mad, James. Please, don't be mad at me. Please don't hate me. I tried my hardest. I guess I'm just not good enough for anyone." She turns her head away from him as tears stream down her face.  
  
He reaches up to stroke her cheek. "I'm not mad, babe, and there's no way I could hate you. I know that it wasn't your fault. You did the best you could do. Our daughter wasn't meant to be born this time."  
  
"Our daughter? It was a little girl?" Cadie asks him.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"What did you name her?" she asks him, starting to realize all that had happened and why she was in another hospital room.  
  
"I didn't. I wanted to talk with you first and see what you wanted."  
  
"What do you think about Adrienne Justina?"  
  
"Adrienne Justina Barney. It sounds pretty good. I like it."  
  
The nurse comes in with a very tiny bundle, "Would you like to hold her for a few minutes?"  
  
Both Cadie and James nod. The nurse gently lays the lifeless infant in Cadie's arms. Tears flow out of both Cadie and James's eyes as they take in the small body of their daughter. "You can tell she's yours, James. She looks just like you." She hands the baby to James.  
  
"She looks a tad bit like you, too, honey. Yes, I think she fits the name of Adrienne Justina. I hate to bring it up at a time like this, but what are we going to do about funeral arrangements?"  
  
"There is a small cemetery a few miles from here by the park, sir, just for those little angels who never got to bless us with their presence. Those that were just too small and early to survive, like your daughter, or those miscarried or stillborn. I think that it might be a good place to lay her to rest. They have little grave markers and statues and everything," the nurse told him.  
  
"I think that's an excellent idea," he answered.  
  
Two days later Cadie is released from the hospital after James manages to convince the doctors that they she is, indeed, a combat medic, and can handle anything that may happen, and she and James go out to her trailer to pack her belongings in his truck and get ready to leave for the base. Then they go out to the little cemetery for Adrienne's short but sweet funeral. They get the call that her car is ready to be picked up and they go retrieve it, deciding to leave the next morning.  
  
They go to bed in James's hotel room, sharing the bed, just holding each other close and talking until they fell asleep. The next day Cadie gets her car and drives back to the base, driving straight through, and James is right behind her in his truck, keeping a close eye on her. Each of them has a walkie-talkie in the vehicle with them, and they talk to each other all the way back.  
  
As soon as they get back to the base, Hawk calls them into his office. On his desk are Cadie's letter of resignation, an ashtray, and a lighter. When he sees the pair walk through the door, he lays the letter in the ashtray and lights it. He then looks up at Cadie and James, noting their paleness, and quiet demeanor. He abruptly realizes that both of them were obviously depressed and in shock.  
  
"What is it? What's wrong?" he asked them. Cadie drops a number of photos onto his desk in front of him. Realization slowly dawns on his face as he looks at them. "I'm so sorry. I had no idea. What did you do with her?"  
  
"We had her buried in a small cemetery for infants that were either miscarried, stillborn or just born too soon, like Adrienne; in Brandywine, not too far from where we were living."  
  
"Does she have a marker or anything?"  
  
"There is a small plaque with her name and the date on it. We didn't have the time or money to do anything else."  
  
"I'm sorry, you two, I really am; and I hate to get right down to business, but Grand Slam, Flint needs you for a mission in Indonesia, and Spitfyre, I want you to get your little behind down to the infirmary so Lifeline can make sure you're fit for duty." 

A/N: Spitfyre is the type who will throw herself into her work as she deals with her grief. I decided to make Grand Slam the same way.


	11. the witch and the final battle for love ...

Both of them salute and just before they step out the door, Hawk calls Spitfyre back in. "I really am sorry, Cadie. I know what you two must be feeling, because Annie and I lost our first child also. That's why we wound up breaking up. She kept the secret from me until she had a miscarriage late in the pregnancy. It hurt that she didn't trust me enough to let me know that she was pregnant, and that she wouldn't tell me until after she had lost the baby."  
  
"I saw that you were doing the same thing to James. Lifeline and I were the only ones here who knew that you were pregnant. He convinced me that you had a contact here on the base, and would tell James when you found out yourself. When you didn't, I began to fear the worst. At least you had the good sense to let him know before you lost the baby. You had a good chance of carrying the child to full term, even though you had a rough first couple of months."  
  
"I know that both you and James are workaholics, and that you'll probably concentrate on your work even more now in an attempt to forget. Please, don't do that. I'm switching you to reserve status for a little while, so that you can grieve for your lost daughter."  
  
"Hawk, I..."  
  
"Don't argue with me, Cadence. I know what I'm doing. When Grand Slam gets back off this mission, he also will be switched to reserve status for the same reason."  
  
"Hawk, what I was trying to say was that when I did find out, I did contact someone here on the base. That person knew that Grand Slam had left, in search of me, but did not know where he had gone. I did not know if anyone else knew where he was, but if I had, I would have gotten a message through to him; somehow. There was no way that my child would have been a bastard. I know what it's like to be one." She hangs her head, hiding her face as she confesses one of her deepest, darkest secrets.  
  
"My father left when he found out my mom was pregnant, they weren't married and she kept telling me that it was because he knew I would be a girl, and that I was worthless because I made him leave her. She treated me like garbage because she couldn't deal with the fact that he was never really interested in her; that she was just a one-night stand type. She hated me and I really did not figure out why until I found out that I was pregnant.  
  
I was definitely going to let James know about his child. He had a right to know. This was his child as much as mine. I would not have put my child through the shame and heartbreak that I knew not knowing her father would cause, for any reason.  
  
The reason I left was that I needed some space to think some things through. I was scared. I didn't know how he'd react. I had to build up my courage to tell him. I didn't really expect you to accept my resignation. I was getting ready to come back when James popped through my door."  
  
Hawk can hear the sincerity in her voice, knowing that she is telling him the truth, letting him see a hint of the pain she has dealt with all of her life. He gets up and comes around his desk, enfolding her in his arms, hugging her tightly. "I never knew that you were from such a background. If I had, I would have done something different, and maybe all this would never have happened. Do you know anything about your father?"  
  
"Not a thing. Only that by being a female, I drove him away from my mother. Or so I was made to believe. But when I met James, I realized that the real reason she hated me was because she knew that one day there would be a man who loved me for who I was and not what she wanted me to be. That I would have everything she didn't.  
  
She kept trying to either kill me, or drive me to commit suicide. I can remember, clearly, the last party I ever went to. It was my eighth birthday, and a whole group of kids that I thought were my friends were there. She came out in the middle of everything and told me, point blank to my face, that she had no idea why I was celebrating, because I should not have been there. I was nothing but a mistake that never should have happened. That's when she cut my face and left this scar. She cursed me loud and long, and it wasn't long after that that all the invitations to parties and get-togethers that I had received were rescinded. I haven't been to a party since, and I haven't gotten close to anyone because of all the betrayals that I have been victim of."  
  
"What happened between you and James, little bit? He wanted to spend as much time as possible with you; he was so determined to make you love him. I think he knew on some level that there were some really dark, evil, demons that you kept hidden inside, that you were afraid to let go, and that the only way that he could help you was to make you confess them to yourself, if not another person. He was so absolutely certain that he was the only one who could save you."  
  
"He was right. Because for some odd reason, I was born with some special abilities, some that you might call supernatural. I can cloak my presence from people and things, which I did when I left; I can shield myself, see the future once in a while, talk to animals, and transmorph, not to mention teleporting. I have some old books containing some prophecies that I have been doing research on; and I found one that seemed to be related to me. I trust that since you wouldn't accept my resignation that you left my quarters exactly as they were?"  
  
"Yes." Hawk holds her closer as she lets him in on a secret that no one has ever shared with her. She no longer cared if he condemned her as a freak or a witch or something along those lines.  
  
"In the locked part of my bookcase, there are a group of books that are so ancient; most people don't believe they are real. Hold on a second."  
  
She teleports to her quarters and retrieves the one that she needs, teleporting back to Hawk's office. She looks through it for a second, and then lays it out on his desk. She points to a passage that she has had marked for a long time, trying to decipher it. He reads it.  
  
_Small and powerful, she will be abandoned by the one that is of her blood before she is born; Alone, she will be despised by the one who should love her but cares not, using her for a slave that she should not be; Thrice she will call to death, and thrice shall death stay from her before her eighteenth year.  
  
In her six and twentieth year, she will find the one for whom she is meant; Parted they will be, and tragedy will strike; her past, returning to strike a killing blow, shall come back on the hater; Death will not succeed, but her beloved will conquer all to become the king of her heart and of her life.  
_  
She interprets for him as he reads each line. "I did a lot of researching while I was by myself, and I realized that there were certain similarities to my life. I concluded that the first line could refer to my father, who left before I was born; the second line, to the hatred that I received from my mother because of it, and the treatment as a slave that I endured; the third line, to the three suicide attempts that I made when I was a teenager that never succeeded.  
  
The fourth line, I do believe, refers to James. I turned twenty-six two days before we were set up as sparring partners by Snake Eyes and subsequently sent by you on that mission together. The fifth line, I believe also, refers to either the kidnapping or when I left to find myself, and the loss of the baby, possibly. The sixth and seventh lines, I still have no idea. I'm still trying to figure them out."  
  
They spend the next week trying to decipher it all together, and Spitfyre gets an idea of what might be coming to put the group in danger.  
  
The intercom squawks. "Hawk! We need you in the Com center immediately! Things have gone to hell on that mission in Kuala Lumpur! Flint says that they have taken heavy casualties, and that they had failed in their objective. They are returning, and he said to tell you that Grand Slam, Clutch, Stunner and Thunder are in critical condition, and will need immediate tending when they get here; and to get all available medical personnel ready. They are stable for the time being, but that can change at any second."  
  
Spitfyre looks at him; "Go. They need you there. My secondary MOS is as a combat medic, so I'll go to the infirmary and see what I can do there. Maybe I can help Lifeline with them."  
  
Hawk nods and both of them rush out of the room and run in different directions, him running to the Com Center and her, hauling butt to the infirmary. She is there when the plane touches down, grabbing the first stretcher off of the plane, and helping to haul the injured into the infirmary. She expends most of her energy stitching up wounds, cleaning them up, and setting broken limbs.  
  
Hawk swings by the infirmary as the last of the injured are being taken care of. He watches as Spitfyre's shoulders slump as she shuffles out of the operating room with Lifeline, and as she leans against the wall and pulls the mask off of her face, tears forming at the edge of her eyes. They had lost Stunner. The British girl grenadier was one of her closest friends.  
  
The alarm sirens sound. The base itself was under attack! There is a single figure on the commons calling out to the soldiers. "I want the witch, and only the witch. The rest of you can go, but I want her."  
  
Spitfyre sighs resignedly and takes the pistol that Hawk holds out to her as she stalks by him. He keeps quiet, knowing that he has never seen her so pissed off before, and not wanting to make her mad at him. He didn't want to be a target for her wrath. He'd seen firsthand in the gym what kind of damage she was capable of when she was mad.  
  
"All right! I'm here! What do you want?" She steps out from behind the group of soldiers in the front of the infirmary, shielding them from what she knows is going to be a very large amount of wild and untamed power flowing. A large silver violet dome seems to form around the two combatants in the middle of the playing field.  
  
"I want you dead, you little bitch. You've been a thorn in my side for too long. Your father decided that he couldn't handle the fact that I had a lot more power than he did, especially after he discovered that I had stolen his. Then, when you were born, you stole all of my powers and now I want them back. I want your power coursing through my veins, your blood on my hands. By blood, you may be my daughter, but in reality, you aren't anything more than a stupid little piece of gutter trash that someone threw out on the side of the highway."  
  
Spitfyre stands still in the middle of the field, summoning up every smidgen of power that she can raise. She reaches out mentally to Hawk and the rest of the unit, asking them to focus their energy, their love; and if she could use them as conduits for the power that they collectively possess.  
  
Spitfyre watches as a very evil, cruel smile blossoms on her adversary's face. "Ahhh, the beloved one is dying. His fading energy will be just what I need to defeat you."  
  
Spitfyre starts glowing with a light, an aura, similar in color to the shielding wall; "You will not touch him!" She erects a comparable shield around Grand Slam's unconscious form, making sure her enemy had no way to get to his energy. She was willing to give up her life to let him live.  
  
She knows that she had used the last of her energy and was almost out of power, when she suddenly begins to feel the power begin to well up.  
  
She looks around and notices how the guys are chanting her name, letting her know that she had their full support.  
  
The enemy, her own mother, snarled and started throwing bolts of pure power at her. Cadie, Spitfyre, just stood there and lazily raised her hand, deflecting the bolts. She yawned. "Is that the best you can do?"  
  
Her mother focuses her power and pours it all into one last bolt of energy. As she is doing that, Cadie looks at her critically, "You know, you forgot something."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Four words. Absolute power corrupts absolutely."  
  
She cuts loose with the bolt of energy, and Cadie steps out of the way and ducks, kissing the dirt. The energy blast ricochets off of the dome and keeps bouncing around, finally coming to rest, like a boomerang, in its creator, searing her into dust.  
  
Cadie lets the shields she erected fade as she falls to her knees, exhausted. Hawk is the first to reach her, scooping her into his arms and carrying her into the infirmary, setting her down on a stretcher in the hallway.  
  
"No," she tells him, fighting to get up. "I need to see Grand Slam. There is something I need to do before I can rest; something I must tell him." Hawk and Flint both support her up the stairs to the room where Grand Slam lay on the bed, comatose. She shrugs them off and stumbles over to the bed. "James, come back to me. Please, my beloved, come back to me. I can't live without you. I love you. I fought my way back for you; now you do the same for me, please," she begs him.  
  
Her tears fall on his face as she leans over him, willing him to live. She then places her hands gently on his shoulders, avoiding the bandages, and dregs up whatever vestiges of power she still had access to, using it to heal what damage she could. She could only hope that what little she did heal would help turn the tide and allow him to live.  
  
She slumps wearily into the chair by the bed that one of the men had thoughtfully moved to the bedside for her. She lowers her head, crying. She remembered that when she had been unconscious after the first battle in the dojo, that Grand Slam had been by her side the whole time. He'd never left. She knew that he could tell that she was there. Day after day, she returns that favor that he had given her when she was in hospital.  
  
One day, when she goes out into the hallway to stretch her legs, he begins to stir. Hawk makes sure that there is one of the guys there, just in case, and orders Cadie down to the canteen to make sure that she got something to eat. He resolves to get Lifeline to give her a sedative later so that she can get some rest.  
  
When she gets back up to Grand Slam's room a couple of hours later, she is surprised that the guard is not at the door, and it is shut. She pushes it open a few inches and sticks her head in. Grand Slam is sitting up and smiling at her, awake and aware. He beckons to her and says, "Come to me, my sweet. I want to hold you and to feel your lips on mine."  
  
She runs over to him and throws herself very gently into his arms. She cries with joy and he holds her close and kisses her like he'll never stop.  
  
"Have you decided on a date for our wedding, yet, princess?" he asks her.  
  
"Not until you're out of here. Thunder is scheduled to get out today, and Clutch will be in here at least another week. I'll think about it when we're in our quarters, perfectly fine and healthy."  
  
"What about Stunner? I saw her take a devastating hit."  
  
"I'm sorry, James. Lifeline and I and the rest of the surgical team did what we could, but we lost her anyway." She tells him, tears welling up in her eyes. He hugs her closer to him and kisses her.  
  
"I'm sorry, little one. I know that she was one of your closest friends." 


End file.
